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A history of the largest union in the AFL-CIO and its growth in a major American city.

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9781439902783

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This is arguably the most enlightening study of a municipal union movement yet written. AFSCME'S Philadelphia Story should become required reading for anyone who seeks to understand the rise of public sector unionism in post-World War II America and its intersection with urban politics and the movement for racial equality. By bringing these subjects together in one narrative, this book makes an indispensable contribution to the literature of recent American labor history. Joseph A. McCartin, Associate Professor of History, Georgetown University

Ryan has written a sound, thoroughly documented, and ultimately fully satisfying history of the interaction between twentieth-century public-sector unionism and urban politics. AFSCME's Philadelphia Story should be required reading for students of American labor history and urban reform. The Journal of American History This is arguably the most enlightening study of a municipal union movement yet written. AFSCME'S Philadelphia Story should become required reading for anyone who seeks to understand the rise of public sector unionism in post-World War II America and its intersection with urban politics and the movement for racial equality. By bringing these subjects together in one narrative, this book makes an indispensable contribution to the literature of recent American labor history. Joseph A. McCartin, Associate Professor of History, Georgetown University By and large, historians have tended to ignore government employees, public-sector unions, and the combined importance of both in the history of the American labor movement. The dearth of historical scholarship on these critical topics makes Francis Ryan's AFSCME's Philadelphia Story all the more welcome and his insights all the more useful. Ryan makes several important contributions to the overlapping fields of African American, urban, and labor history. He highlights the significance of public-sector employment in Philadelphia's Black communities throughout the twentieth century... AFSCME's Philadelphia's Story is well researched and rich in anecdotes and insights gleaned from an impressive number of oral histories...scholars in labor relations will find the book useful and interesting. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, January 2012 Francis Ryan has written a terrific and timely book that helps us understand how and why unionized public employees remain so controversial. This well-written, extensively researched, and--while pro-labor--well-balanced monograph provides an excellent overview of the major political, economic, and demographic trends in Philadelphia from the 1920s to the early twenty-first century... This is a richly detailed book that lavishes attention on the pre-union world of the public worker. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, April 2012

This is arguably the most enlightening study of a municipal union movement yet written. AFSCME'S Philadelphia Story should become required reading for anyone who seeks to understand the rise of public sector unionism in post-World War II America and its intersection with urban politics and the movement for racial equality. By bringing these subjects together in one narrative, this book makes an indispensable contribution to the literature of recent American labor history. -Joseph A. McCartin, Associate Professor of History, Georgetown University.

Author Information

Francis Ryan teaches labor history at the Comey Institute of Industrial Relations at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

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